Pak drops case against ex-CIA station chief over drone attack

Police in Islamabad today dropped a case against a former CIA station chief over his alleged role in the death of two people in a 2009 US drone attack in Pakistan's restive northwest.
The case was registered only recently in the Secretariat Police Station in Islamabad on the orders of the high court.
A police officer told PTI that the case was dropped over the issue of jurisdiction.
"The drone attack was carried out in tribal areas that do not fall in the jurisdiction of the capital police," he said.
He said that the issue of aggrieved party was transferred to Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Secretariat, which is responsible for affairs of the tribal region.

Karim Khan, a native of Mirali, North Waziristan, had filed an application in the high court here in 2010, seeking registration of an FIR against local CIA chief Jonathan Banks and legal advisor John Rizzo for the deaths of Khan's son and brother in the drone attack.

The strikes by the CIA-operated spy planes against militants have been controversial due to many civilian deaths in the attacks.
The police station had earlier refused Khan's request to register the FIR but finally lodged it after Islamabad High Court (IHC) asked it to do so.
Banks left Pakistan in 2010 after his cover was blown when Khan threatened to sue the CIA and others for USD 500 million over the deaths of his 18-year-old son and brother in the December 31, 2009 drone strike.

Rizzo also left Pakistan and there is no way the government can bring the two back to face the charges even if the police go ahead with the case.